Jump to content

Question on USMC GCM bars


SgtMaddoxUSMC
 Share

Recommended Posts

SgtMaddoxUSMC

While combing through early USMC muster rolls (1914-1915) I am seeing a lot of Good Conduct Medal bars listed with letters after their name.. A, B, C....  I am curious to know if anyone has any of these early engraved bars that show letter suffixes and if anyone knows what the letters might indicate.  Thanks!



 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A, B & C correlates to East Coast, West Coast & the Pacific, right?  If so, I don’t recall which is which.

 

Off the top of my head, I think that early enlistment bars just list the No. XXXXX, but I may be mistaken.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SgtMaddoxUSMC

Here are a few examples.  I thought the letters corresponded with the number of awards but it doesn't work out.

asdfghjkl.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

unclegrumpy

Just a guess, but it does appear it might be how they indicated the subsequent award bars.  In the example above, Pflaum is getting his bar A for his second enlistment, and Mills his bar C for his fourth enlistment.  Hockett might not have qualified for a medal or a bar in either his 1st or 2nd enlistments. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

unclegrumpy

I think we are talking about the same thing.  

 

These are all early examples, and the medal numbers are low, and what you would expect in this time period.  Scott Smith does not mention the letters in his monograph, but it still appears to me the letters correspond to the number of bars awarded.  Using letters would make sense, because if they used numbers, it would quickly get confusing, because the number of awards and the number of enlistments do not aways mate up.  I bet there is a paragraph in a manual that answers this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...